Wednesday’s 8×8

Jason L Baptise: 14 Reasons Why You Need To Start A Startup
“This post has been ruminating with me for a while. It’s not a sudden “a-ha” moment that made it form, but a collective group of “a-has!” over the past few months. Consider this the uplifting post to counter last week’s “The 11 Harsh Realities Of Entrepreneurship”. Just because it’s a harsh reality, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur. The best time to start a startup is not tomorrow, not next week, and certainly not next year. The time is right now, at this very second. Here’s why…”

BetaNews: Steve Ballmer’s change of heart is touching, but it’s five years too late
“S-o-o-o-o, if the unnamed sources cited by Bloomberg are to be believed, Microsoft’s CEO wants to shakeup management by shaking out the sales and marketing guys and bringing in more technically-oriented leadership. Oh yeah? Then why has Microsoft lost so many technically-savvy managers over the past 12 months or so — including Robbie Bach, Bob Muglia and Ray Ozzie, all of which got Steve Ballmer’s boot out the door? Then there is Ballmer, who started this marketing management madness in a September 2005 reorganization. That’s right, Ballmer is responsible for placing so many sales and marketing execs in key management positions and allowing them to appoint others.”

TechNewsWorld: Malware Is on the Move, Reports McAfee
“Mobile operating systems are the new favorite target of malware, and social engineering remains the favorite old standby for launching attacks. Tried-and-true preventive care works best. “Never give information via email, smartphone or on the Web, and verify independently before you click on any unknown text or email message, game, application or security update,” advises UVa security expert Karen McDowell.”

AVC: Anatomy Of A Pirate
“I like to buy music. I buy it from emusic (where I pay $23/month for use it or lose it credits for music downloads), Amazon, and when in a pinch, iTunes. I also have two Rhapsody music subscriptions that cost an additional $20/month. My kids also regularly spend money on iTunes for music (often for tracks we already own somewhere else in the house). I suspect between all of this, our family spends well over $1000/year on mp3s, probably closer to $2000/year.”

TechCrunch: ComScore Says You Don’t Got Mail: Web Email Usage Declines, 59% Among Teens!
“In introducing his messaging platform last November Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said one of the primary motivations behind Messages product strategy was that teenagers have given up on email, ‘High school kids don’t use email, they use SMS a lot. People want lighter weight things like SMS and IM to message each other.’”

Time: Smartphone Sins: Catholic Church Approves Confession by iPhone
“The Catholic Church in America has approved Confession: A Roman Catholic App, for use among churchgoers and lapsed Catholics alike. Patrick Leinen, of Little iApps, the company that created Confession, claims it has already helped one person come back to the church after 20 years away.”

Technologizer: Last.fm: The Free Ride is Over for Smartphones
“It’s no secret that streaming music services must pay a licensing premium to offer their libraries on smartphones and other devices, but now it seems that Last.fm’s ad revenue wasn’t enough to pay those bills.”

LinuxDevices: Dalvik ported to MeeGo, promising instant Android app compatibility
“Myriad Group AG today announced a Dalvik virtual machine claimed to let Android apps run on non-Android platforms. Myriad posted a video showing “Myriad Alien Dalvik” running Android apps on a Nokia N900, and said the software will be available for MeeGo later this year.”

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Tech Europe covers Europe’s technology leaders, their companies, and the people and industries that support them — and their ideas. The blog is edited by Ben Rooney, with contributions from The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.